December 2007

Hello. Iv’e been reading your site for a bit and I thought you might find this interesting:

“So to understand this question of death, we must be rid of fear which invents the various theories of afterlife or immortality or reincarnation. So we say, those in the East say, that there is reincarnation, there is a rebirth, a constant renewal going on and on and on-the soul, the so-called soul. Now please listen carefully. Is there such a thing? We like to think there is such a thing, because it gives us pleasure, because that is something which we have set beyond thought, beyond words, beyond; it is something eternal, spiritual, that can never die, and so thought clings to it. But is there such a thing, as a soul, which is something beyond time, something beyond thought, something which is not invented by man, something which is beyond the nature of man, something which is not put together by the cunning mind? Because the mind sees such enormous uncertainty, confusion, nothing permanent in life-nothing. Your relationship to your wife, your husband, your job-nothing is permanent. And so the mind invents a something which is permanent, which it calls the soul. But since the mind can think about it, thought can think about it; as thought can think about it, it is still within the field of time-naturally. If I can think about something, it is part of my thought. And my thought is the result of time, of experience, of knowledge. So, the soul is still within the field of time… So the idea of a continuity of a soul which will be reborn over and over and over again has no meaning because it is the invention of a mind that is frightened, of a mind that wants, that seeks a duration through permanency, that wants certainty, because in that there is hope.”

His name is Jiddu Krishnamurti and he tends to go on about things such as reality, spirituality and especialy the mind.

He often has more questions than answers but it’s the kind of stuff that can occasionally make your mind rip it’s insides out and study it.

This quote does’nt do him full justice, but you get the drift…

That’s interesting stuff — I hadn’t read anything by this author before. I don’t know whether or not he(?) is correct about the origin of the concept of a soul, since I think the origin might be in the desire to explain what it is that makes flesh alive (and this would mesh with a wide variety of religious beliefs, including those that believe that non-humans have spirits). I also disagree with the reasoning used to reach his conclusion about the impossibility of reincarnation. Even so, this gives me much to think about. Thank you for sharing it with me!